Read onceAsk when unsure
Policies
Short version: come to class, do your own thinking, tell me early when something goes wrong.
Attendance
This is a seminar; attendance is the course. More than two unexcused absences will materially affect your participation grade.
If you must miss a meeting, notify the instructor in advance. Absences for illness, religious observance, or documented emergency are excused.
Late work
Reading responses are not accepted late. The point is that you have read the paper before we discuss it. The two dropped scores exist to absorb ordinary life.
Project deliverables may be submitted up to 48 hours late with a 10% penalty. Beyond that, only by prior arrangement.
Prior arrangement means prior
An extension asked for on Wednesday is a conversation. The same request on Saturday, after a Friday deadline, is a different one. Ask early.
Generative AI
You may use AI tools for
- Coding assistance and debugging.
- Language polishing on written work.
You may not use them for
- Generating your reading responses.
- Generating your critique of a paper.
- Generating the substantive content of your project report.
Those are the thinking this course is designed to teach.
Disclose, and check your citations
Any substantial AI assistance must be disclosed in a brief note at the end of the submission. Undisclosed use is an honor code matter.
Note also that AI tools fabricate citations with some regularity. You are responsible for every reference you submit.
Honor Code
All work is governed by the William & Mary Honor Code. Collaboration on project work is encouraged within your declared team; representing others' work or ideas as your own is not permitted.
When in doubt about whether a form of collaboration is acceptable, ask before rather than after.
Accessibility
William & Mary accommodates students with disabilities. Contact Student Accessibility Services to establish eligibility, then share the accommodation letter with the instructor as early in the semester as possible — arrangements need lead time to be useful.
Wellbeing
Graduate study is demanding, and a seminar that meets twice weekly makes it hard to disappear quietly during a difficult stretch.
If something is going on, tell me early. Nearly every problem is easier to solve in September than in November.
W&M Counseling Center
Available to students at no cost.
Research ethics
Several projects in this course will involve human affective data.
Any project collecting new data from human participants requires IRB review before collection begins. Plan for that timeline in your proposal.
Projects using existing corpora must respect the license and use restrictions of those corpora — several of the datasets on the reading list restrict redistribution and commercial use.
Contact
Ashley (Ye) Gao
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Office hours: to be posted before the first day of class.